It persuaded the adults in the halls of Congress to cut a debt-ceiling deal, although one that is far from ideal.

We’ll know Congress is truly serious about this nation’s burgeoning debt when it enacts a comprehensive deficit-reduction plan that includes reform of entitlements and additional tax revenue. This plan includes neither, although it does have a second step that might – and we emphasize might – achieve at least part of that goal.

Don’t misunderstand. We support this debt-ceiling deal not only as the only available means of avoiding default but also because it begins the process of reining in spending.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the deal will reduce projected outlays over the next 10 years by $2.1 trillion. Nearly $1 trillion of that total is identified in the agreement and will come from discretionary spending.

And the remainder? Get ready for Round 2 of the debt wars. A 12-member bipartisan committee will be delegated to present recommendations to Congress by late November, with entitlements and possibly tax reform fair game for the package.

However, if Congress refuses to pass the recommendations before the end of the year – or the committee can’t agree because one side digs in its heels and refuses to compromise – then spending cuts will occur automatically.

If that happens, half of those automatic cuts will come from defense and half from non-entitlement domestic programs. It’s a crude and clumsy way to adjust spending, but then that’s the point: to scare both the committee and Congress into doing their jobs. If they don’t, unfortunately, the damage to some programs could be severe.

As risky as the second phase of this deal might be, default on the nation’s debt would surely have been worse.

Predictably, both liberals and conservatives are professing disappointment in the deal, but we think conservative House Republicans, in particular, protest too much. Congress wouldn’t even be having this debate over the debt ceiling if they hadn’t successfully asserted their clout. And not only have they succeeded in extracting a deal to restrain deficit-spending, they’ve prevailed in blocking the inclusion of taxes.

Sure, the package isn’t nearly as large as many fiscal hawks justifiably sought, but it’s a legitimate down payment on deficit reduction, just as President Barack Obama maintains.

Republican Rep. Cory Gardner of Yuma, Colo., summed up the deal this way: “It’s not the whole apple, it’s a bite of the apple.”

Not only that, it pushes the next scheduled vote on increasing the debt ceiling until after the 2012 election, meaning we won’t repeat this exercise in brinkmanship during next year’s political campaigns.

Not once in its history has this nation defaulted on its debt. The fact that we may have been only hours away from doing so this week is a sad commentary on the quality of political leadership and the divide between the parties. The adults finally cut a deal, but will they be able to for the next round?